I am an occasional listener to MPU and I often have a feeling that David and Katie were too enthusiastic about some software for no good reason. Yes, you can be excited because TextExpander is doing text replacements for you, but you should also have in mind in a podcast for power users that they were neither the first to provide such functionality, nor do they have something special. Interestingly is also, that TE is one of the apps where all predictions about going for subscription model for just a money grab without providing any additional value or increased development speed were true.
It should not mean, that you are forbidden to praise such a software, it just means that it could look suspicious for some listeners especially if Smile is a regular sponsor. Praise of Fujitsu is, I guess, the same story — high-price hardware with poor software support. The part with software problems is never properly addressed. Happens to be also one of the main sponsors of the show. Could be a coincidence, could be not.
I am not offended because I take their advertisements as what it is — advertisement. I would agree with value of some of the advertised products, like OmniFocus, for most of others I would say “nah, it is not worth the money and there are better options anyway”. The problem is: if you make ads look like your personal opinion, people will make you responsible for nor mentioning the dark sides. Especially if you say something like “Fujitsu is a sponsor of this show, but I am recommending them only because they are sooo gooood”. I guess, now it would be time to un-recommend them if it is really about the personal opinion and not about sponsorship.
There is a lot of mediocre software in the internet full with fake customer praise like “I’ve installed this wallpaper changer and my life is not the same since!”. MPU surely does not want to end like this. I was in science for some time and would say this thread is a classic about sponsorship, conflict of interest and credibility. David should be more cautions about such things in future because the ice is very thin. Nobody likes marketing. It is the necessary evil, we all get it, but it should be marked as such.